Thursday, April 2, 2009

Class 4 - I wonder if they have a pre-beginner class?

Tonight the 2 older boys and I went to class. My wife stayed home with my youngest because he is still recovering from the stomach virus. Hopefully by Tuesday they will be able to attend.

Each class we have different ways of learning the same things with a slight variety. I think it has to do with the fact that various instructors help teach the classes. Tonight, Mr Henderson took the whole class through stretches.

These stretches while very beneficial, are some of the most painful parts of class. Mr. Henderson says it's not supposed to hurt just stretch. Easy to say, but that's ok.

I almost forgot, the first thing we do is jumping-jacks, I had forgotten how to do jumping-jacks, OK not really, I just don't do them, until now of course. When I do jumping-jacks now, I realize why I didn't do them for so long. I am very overweight, mostly in my stomach, so, as a result, when I jump and come down, my stomach is a half-beat behind me. I'm sure it's a very sad thing to watch... I'm glad I don't have to. Surprisingly, I can keep up with the jumping jacks. We normally do about 40-50. However, I think Mr Henderson had us do about 100 tonight. He was having conversations while we were trying to do jumping jacks! Then we did the stretches. I used to be able to touch my toes, but not at the present, (Some day!)

Once we finished the stretches Master Scota had us do some basic stances, kicks, blocks, punches. The basics.

Mr Henderson then took the beginners, my two older sons, myself, and a young boy about 9. Other than this other boy we are all gupless (Is that a word) He is 10th gup. A GUP is a belt in Tang Soo Do the basic belts start at 10 and go up to 1 then the Dan belts, etc.So the 10th Gup is the white belt. Since we, my family, don't have and gups, I guess we are gupless!

Mr. Henderson had us go through basic stances:

Jhoon Bee Ja Seh - Ready Stance

Charyut - Attention

Hu Kul Ja Seh - Fighting Stance

Chun Kul Ja Seh - Front Stance

Kee Ma Ja Seh - Horse Riding Stance

We also did a block: Ha Dan Mahk Ki - Low Block

In some ways at the end of class, which seems to come faster and faster each time, I am not quite as sore as last time, and I don't hurt quite all over tonight. Maybe I can be a beginner. I think I can even learn how to kick.